


The Downstairs Cat

by cosmicruin



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Kyungsoo's Birthday Week 2021, M/M, Magical Realism, Pre-Relationship, Reunions, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-23
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-17 18:42:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29355159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cosmicruin/pseuds/cosmicruin
Summary: Kyungsoo becomes a reluctant butler to a stray cat.
Relationships: Do Kyungsoo | D.O/Oh Sehun
Comments: 14
Kudos: 37
Collections: Challenge #13 — Like a Movie





	The Downstairs Cat

**Author's Note:**

> Written for **Tiny Sparks Challenge #13**. Inspired by and very loosely based on _Catman/I Love Catman_.
> 
>  **Original post date:** February 11, 2021  
>  **Origininal reveal date:** February 14, 2021

Past seven, a cool spring night with a cloudy sky. Kyungsoo hummed a tune on the walk home, the rustle of paper bags accompanying him. After a grueling three weeks of reports and presentations at the office, he could finally take it easy with the upcoming holidays. He was ready to stay at home and binge watch movies, but he wouldn’t be opposed to short trips with Baekhyun and Jongdae.

Turning right on the corner, five steps past the apartment gates, Kyungsoo stopped and smiled. Up ahead the cobblestone path leading to the apartment building was a figure he already expected.

The figure didn’t move, even as Kyungsoo approached. Sitting on his haunches, Kyungsoo extended his free arm, palm up in a gesture of offering.

The figure—the cat—barely moved its head. The only sign it responded was its lowering gaze to Kyungsoo’s hand; the twitching of its nose and slight opening of mouth to process new scents.

Kyungsoo opened a paper bag. “Come here.” He pointed inside.

The cat tilted its head, expectant.

Kyungsoo sighed. He carried and slowly lowered the cat inside the paper bag. “Why must I always do things for you…” he muttered, sans annoyance.

Tenants were prohibited to bring animals inside the building. Never in his three years of residing here did Kyungsoo imagine breaking that rule by sneaking in a cat almost every day. Perhaps some powerful force out there guarded him since he hadn’t been caught yet. Regardless, he didn’t stay complacent, moving as naturally as he could while staying vigilant of passers-by. It helped the cat was strangely cooperative; making neither sound nor movement while Kyungsoo climbed three flights of stairs to reach his floor. Only in the security of his own apartment did he expel a huge, relieved sigh at another successful smuggling.

Kyungsoo set down the paper bag. The cat popped its head out, blinking blue eyes at him.

“No meowing,” Kyungsoo reminded, tone purposefully hushed. His walls were thin; his neighbor was the nosy type. Bad combination.

The cat jumped out of the bag, landing gracefully on its feet. Prancing further inside, it stopped briefly to look back at Kyungsoo over its shoulder, as if telling him to hurry up.

In hindsight, Kyungsoo was unsure why he continued caring for this cat. He had met the cat for the first time two months ago outside the apartment building, sitting eerily still despite the falling snow and frigid temperature. Kyungsoo could’ve walked away, but he had noticed it trembling and took pity. He had fed the cat, politely asked permission to check its gender (male); wondered if it was somebody’s pet, but the absence of a collar was answer enough. He had provided the cat with a spacious box and a clean, fluffy blanket to sleep in as snow fell thick outside, but that was pointedly ignored in favor of Kyungsoo’s bed.

Come morning, the cat had disappeared. Almost like Kyungsoo had dreamed it all up. 

Yet he met the cat again the following night, the next one, until this weird routine was gradually established. In the same span of time, Kyungsoo acquainted himself with the cat’s eccentricities.

The cat snubbed canned tuna and treats, preferring table food and sulked if denied. The cat’s white fur remained impeccably clean for a stray. The cat always stayed the night, vanished in the mornings, absent on full moons. The cat liked watching Kyungsoo work in the kitchen; followed him around the apartment.

The cat also had a penchant for staring at the framed pictures on a display table in the living room. It was no different now, coming from the kitchen after a filling dinner of _gukbap_. The cat leaped onto the table, scanned the frames, openly stared at one.

Kyungsoo chuckled, amused. “Why do you always look at that picture?” Oddly struck by nostalgia, he took the frame of interest and relocated to the couch. The cat climbed on his lap, pawing at the frame; inside, a picture of Kyungsoo at ten years old, standing beside a younger boy. Both of them smiled at the camera with ice cream cones in hand. 

Kyungsoo smiled. “This was from a summer long ago. A new ice cream place opened in the neighborhood. Sehun practically dragged me out the house so we could try.” He thought it weird of him to be telling this to an animal, but also felt cathartic relief.

If he was truthful with himself, he hadn’t thought about his childhood friend, Oh Sehun, in a long time. Sehun, who shyly peeked behind his mother’s skirt while she introduced them as their new neighbors. Sehun, with endless energy and ready smiles, always tagging along when Kyungsoo ran errands. Sehun, who never shared his precious chocolates with anybody but never acted stingy with him.

“I wonder how he’s doing right now. We haven’t kept in touch after his family moved.” Kyungsoo stroked the cat’s head distractedly. “He always said he’d become a star. Guess he made it big—I see his face in ads everywhere, now.”

Realizing the time, Kyungsoo gently removed the cat from his lap. He headed for the bathroom, but stopped after glancing out the window.

A full moon hanging in the sky. 

“Why don’t you ask me how I’m doing face to face?”

If this moment was a movie, it would pan out like this:

Kyungsoo slowly turning around to search for the voice.

The cat approaching, piercing blue stare fixed on him.

The moonlight spilling through the window touching the cat as it passed.

Fur receding from the limbs and body; tail disappearing, form enlarging.

Where the cat once stood was now replaced with a tall, lithe figure of a man. Blond-dyed hair, impressive eyebrows, a boyish grin Kyungsoo hadn’t seen in a long time but was slammed with immediate familiarity it knocked the breath and coherent thought out of him.

“Hi, _hyung_ ,” the cat—Sehun—spoke, mischief sparkling in his eyes. “How have you been?”

**Author's Note:**

> Let's talk on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/mindstormfury/)! My [Curious Cat](https://curiouscat.me/propinquity) is also open in case you're shy.


End file.
